Title by Meghan Trainor

All About That Bass is a very big hit for Meghan Trainor, but that song has gimmicky one-hit-wonder written all over it. Sure, it has a message about accepting and loving your body for all of those curves, but it also suggests that Ms Trainor’s voice has a bit of a “sandpaper rubbing against your face” quality to it. The follow-up song Lips are Movin’ being basically another version of All About That Bass doesn’t do much to change that impression.

Title does try, though. The starting interlude, The Best Part, is performed in a cappella, to show everyone that Ms Trainor can sing. Of course, a cynical person would point out that it’s hard to really tell how good the singer is when each line has so many voices layered one over another, but to be fair, is anyone expecting anything more from the darling? The rest of the album follows the same formula that made All About That Bass an annoying earworm track: catchy hooks and a chorus that vaguely reminds people of some other song they’ve liked in the past. There are uptempo beats like Bang Dem Sticks and some slow-groove moments like Like I’m Gonna Lose You (which also features John Legend).

The thing is, she still sounds like a bleating goat with laryngitis on those songs, so…